China punches back as world weighs how to deal with higher US tariffs

Countries and industries were scrambling on Friday to respond as President Donald Trump's latest tariffs hikes and world markets.

China responded to the 34 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on imports from China by announcing it will impose a 34 per cent tariff on imports of all US products beginning 10 April.

Taiwan's President promised to provide support to industries most vulnerable to the 32 per cent tariffs Trump ordered in his 'Liberation Day' reciprocal tariffs announcement.

Vietnam said its deputy prime minister would visit the US for talks on trade. Some, like the head of the EU's European Commission, have vowed to fight back while promising to improve the rules book for free trade. Others said they were hoping to negotiate with the Trump administration for relief.

As with earlier countermoves to US trade penalties, Beijing hit back with targeted action, as well as its universal 34 per cent tariff on all products from the US. The commerce ministry in Beijing said it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries.

Included in the list was samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defence sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans.

China's customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from two US suppliers, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Coastal Processing. It said Chinese customs had repeatedly detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies.

Additionally, the Chinese government said it has added 27 firms to the lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls.

For good measure, China also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organisation, saying the US tariffs were “a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order.”

Trump is LYING about other countries' tariffs -- by as much as 3-10x

Literally ZERO countries in the world have tariffs as high as Trump is claiming. pic.twitter.com/FY8nQKn8yY

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) April 3, 2025

with a 26 per cent tariff rate, lower than the 34 per cent for Chinese exports and 46 per cent for Vietnam. Its commerce ministry said that it was “studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in US trade policy”. It said talks were underway on a trade agreement, including “deepening supply chain integration.”

The US was New Delhi's biggest trading partner in 2024 with two-way trade estimated at USD 129 billion, according to US data. They have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030. Most pharmaceuticals and other medicines, important Indian exports to the US, are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs.

However, diamonds and other gems, another major export industry, are subject to the higher duties.

Business groups said they viewed as a chance to improve India's competitiveness. “At a time when global trade dynamics are shifting rapidly, Indian exporters must be equipped with the right policies, strategies, and support to compete effectively," S.C. Ralkan, head of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said in a statement.

Most US trading partners have emphasised they hope negotiations can help resolve trade friction with Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was prepared to fly to Washington, in a last-ditch effort to forestall the 24 per cent tariffs Trump ordered for exports from the biggest Asian US ally.

“The global trading system has serious deficiencies,” the president of the EU's European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Thursday while on a visit to Uzbekistan. But she chided Trump, saying that “reaching for tariffs as your first and last tool will not fix it. This is why from the onset we have always been ready to negotiate with the United States.”

Russia not mentioned anywhere on Trump's list of tariffs.

Do you get it now?pic.twitter.com/2xuYV0kQPa

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 3, 2025

In Italy, Premier Giorgia Meloni told state TV she believes the 20 per cent US tariffs on exports from Europe were wrong, but “it is not the catastrophe that some are making it out to be.” Her government planned to meet next week with representatives of affected sectors to formulate plans. “We need to open an honest discussion on the matter with the Americans, with the goal, at least from my point of view, of removing tariffs, not multiplying them,” Meloni said.

Vietnam foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said Hanoi would keep talking to the US to “find practical solutions” as 46 per cent US tariffs threatened to decimate exports of footwear, electronics, textiles and seafood.

“If enforced, would negatively impact bilateral economic and trade relations as well as the interests of businesses and people in both countries,” Hang said in comments cited by state-run media, which reported that the deputy prime minister and former finance minister Ho Duc Phoc was scheduled to visit the US for trade talks next week.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said he will offer the “greatest support” to industries most impacted by the new tariffs. Taiwan's trade surplus with the US is relatively high partly because the island is a major source of computer chips and other advanced technology.

Trump’s tariffs will result in a massive transfer of wealth from working people into the hands of millionaires and billionaires. Here’s how. pic.twitter.com/QqBWTGyDf9

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 2, 2025

Lai said in a statement on his Facebook page that “We feel that this is unreasonable and are also worried about the subsequent impact these measures may have on the global economy.”

Lai said he instructed Premier Cho Jung-tai to work closely with industries that are impacted and to communicate with the public about their plans to stabilise the economy.

Japan's leader Ishiba and other governments also said they were preparing countermeasures to help industries cope. Likewise, von der Leyen said the EU was consulting with steel and auto makers, pharmaceutical companies and other industries about how to give them more “breathing space.”

Trump's decision to sharply raise tariffs on countries spanning the globe is “self-defeating,” Wang Huiyao, president of the Chinese think tank Centre for China and Globalisation, said in an interview.

The latest tariffs impose heavy burdens on some countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It's a , Wang said, while China's strategy is to trade more with Southeast Asia and Latin America, with Europe, the Middle East and other developing nations.

“The likely outcome is that China will become the largest trading nation and its economy will be trading more with other nations and the US may ... become more isolated,” Wang said.

Europe will work to build more bridges and as a regional economic bloc of 450 million people, larger than the United States, it also has its own huge market, said von der Leyen, the EC president. The EU is its own “safe harbour in tumultuous times,” she said.